Volume 58 Issue 6 (June 2024) 1053 RESEARCH ARTICLE Indian Journal of Animal Research, Volume 58 Issue 6: 1053-1057 (June 2024) Effects of Liquid Whey Supplementation with Water on Egg Production and Egg Quality in Layer Chickens Sanjay Kumar 1 , S.P. Sahu 1 , Sushma Kumari 2 , R.R.K. Sinha 1 , Pankaj Kumar 3 , Sanjiv Kumar 4 , Kausal Kumar 4 10.18805/IJAR.B-5227 ABSTRACT Background: Liquid whey is a milk by-product and contains good quality protein and minerals. Due to lack of proper knowledge and sufficient technology it remains unutilized and thrown away as a waste. So, keeping in view of its profitable utilization, a study was planned to include liquid whey as feed supplement to layer poultry. Methods: A study was conducted by supplementation of liquid whey to layer chickens to study the effect on egg production and egg quality. A total of 120 layer birds (indicate the age) were supplemented with liquid whey ad libitum in the drinking water @ 0, 5, 10 and 15% up to 90 days. The data were collected with respect to egg production and egg quality parameters. Result: Supplementation of liquid whey in drinking water improved egg production and egg quality in laying chickens. It may be concluded that liquid whey can be supplemented with drinking water at the rate of 5% (v/v) for better egg production in layers and for production of premium quality of bigger size and weight of eggs, supplementation of whey up to 15% (v/v) can be recommended. Key words: Egg, Layer, Production, Quality, Whey. INTRODUCTION The use of liquid whey in poultry feeding has an area of great interest in layer poultry production. Whey is a milk by- product , separated during cheese and whey manufacturing and are considered as waste of dairy industry (Kumar et al., 2018). It is a greenish yellow liquid obtained after acid coagulation or rennet coagulation of milk. Whey contains high quality proteins with high digestible indispensable amino acid score (DIAAS) and are considered as very good sources of amino acids (Herreman et al., 2020). Whey protein has most beneficial nutritional properties. Protein fraction in whey is typically a mixture of beta-lactoglobulin (65 %), alpha lactalbumin (25%) and bovine serum albumin (10%). α-La contains 63.2% essential amino acids of total content and Igs as 10% of total whey protein (Deeth and Bansal, 2019; Barone et al., 2020). Carbohydrate part of whey consists of milk sugar lactose and fat consists of phospholipid. Energy content in acid whey is about 59 calories/100 ml and about 66 calories/100 ml in sweet whey. Huge quantity of whey is produced daily by channa, paneer or cheese manufacturers and thrown away as waste due to lack of proper knowledge and low cost technology for its utilization in our country results in devastating environmental problems due to increase in BOD of sewage system because for small scale product manufacturers, processing or drying of whey for further utilization is a challenging process (Mehra et al., 2021; Rocha-Mendoza et al., 2021). Thus, it is considered as most pollutant by- product of dairy industry (Moreno-Indias et al., 2009; Bozanic et al., 2014; Barukcic et al., 2019). Therefore, dairy industry, responding to the sustainability and environmental demands, are searching for the ways to reutilize whey, preferably in its liquid form (Mazorra et al., 2020). So, utilization of highly nutritious whey in poultry feeding may be a profitable solution of above. Unlike mammals, birds lack the enzyme lactase (B-galactosidase) required to digest lactose. Because lactose is not completely absorbed in the intestinal tract, it is fermented by microflora in the caeca producing lactic acid and volatile fatty acids, which decrease pH and suppresses the growth of pathogenic bacteria. There is also eggs of superior quality is prerequisite for profitable marketing and for hatchability too and so high in demand (Sinha et al., 2017). Maddheshiya et al. (2020) reported that chicken reared under backyard poultry production system has superior internal and external egg traits than the poultry 1 Department of Livestock Production Management, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna-800 014, Bihar, India. 2 Department of Livestock Products Technology, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna-800 014, Bihar, India. 3 Department of Animal Husbandry and Extension Education, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna- 800 014, Bihar, India. 4 Department of Veterinary Pathology, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna-800 014, Bihar, India. Corresponding Author: Sushma Kumari, Department of Livestock Products Technology, Bihar Veterinary College, Bihar Animal Sciences University, Patna-800 014, Bihar, India. Email: drsushma97@gmail.com How to cite this article: Kumar, S., Sahu, S.P., Kumari, S., Sinha, R.R.K., Kumar, P., Kumar, S. and Kumar, K. (2024). Effects of Liquid Whey Supplementation with Water on Egg Production and Egg Quality in Layer Chickens. Indian Journal of Animal Research. 58(6): 1053-1057. doi: 10.18805/IJAR.B-5227. Submitted: 28-08-2023 Accepted: 22-01-2024 Online: 17-05-2024